Chiefs place fifth in own tourney

RONAN — The Ronan wrestling team took fifth place at its dual tournament last weekend.

Ronan started the tournament with a 72-12 win over Darby, winning every match wrestled with six pins and two decisions.

“Against Darby, we started out on fire,” head coach Dustyn Azure said.

The Chiefs went on to beat Arlee 59-29 to end the day with a 2-0 record. The Warriors earned two pins and a tech fall against Ronan. In the 215 match, freshman Colby Roberts “wrestled well in his match and was winning up until his one mistake cost him the match,” Azure said.

In the 135 match, senior Cameron Neiss won a tech fall 25-10 and senior Micky Cheff clocked a pin in the first period while his brother, Toby, earned one in 76 seconds.

“We wrestled well against Arlee,” Azure said. “The guys went out and kept wrestling tough from start to finish.”

On the second day, Ronan beat Hamilton 57-24 in its first match. The Chiefs won seven matches while Hamilton only took one.

“We started the morning with some solid wrestling,” Azure said. “We kept our momentum going from Friday.”

Junior Cole McArthur won with a 14-1 major decision in the 160 match.

“We were very happy with the way McArthur wrestled in his match,” Azure said. “He was wrestling to dominate and that is what we need him to do for the rest of the season.”

The Glacier JV team handed the Chiefs their first loss, a 41-40 match that came down to the wire.

After a 8-4 decision loss, Micky Cheff, Wheeler and Toby Cheff each pinned their opponent while McArthur won with a major decision for a 24-6 lead.

Glacier fought back with two pins, a tech fall and a Ronan forfeit for a 29-24 lead. Two more forfeits and a decision increased Glacier’s lead to 41-24.

Grant, Neiss and Starkel were able to pin their opponents, but it wasn’t enough for the win.

Ronan won seven matches to Glacier’s five, with six pins and one major decision, but the Chiefs had three forfeits. 

 “Overall, we wrestled well in this dual despite the team loss,” Azure said. “Our forfeits cost us.”

The Chiefs took the loss hard, but had to quickly regain composure to face Polson in the next round.

Last time these two teams met, Polson squeaked out the win. This time, Ronan was the victor.

Micky Cheff took a tech fall and McArthur earned a pin to take an early 12-0 lead.

After forfeiting in the 171 class, Wheeler got a pin and Toby Cheff got a tech fall. Wheeler and Toby Cheff were each shifted up one weight class for this dual.

“We did a little shuffling against Polson and it turned out in our favor,” Azure said.

Polson fought back with two pins before Ronan forfeited twice in the lower weight classes. Grant stopped Polson’s scoring with a 17-7 major decision before Neiss and Starkel both pinned their opponents to secure the win and a spot in the fifth-place match.

Ronan had pins from Micky Cheff, McArthur and Yazzie along with decisions from Conklin and Neiss. Tiegan earned a victory by injury.

“We were happy with the whole team during this dual,” Azure said. “They all went out and scrapped for every point. We earned bonus points in all but one match.”

In the fifth place match, Ronan used four pins to gain the win. Neiss won a 7-0 decision in the 135 class and freshman Lukas Conklin won an 11-10 decision.

Toby Cheff, Micky, McArthur and junior Aaron Yazzie took down their opponents for six points.

Azure said the weekend went well and the coaching staff saw things come together at the tournament.

“We are attacking a lot more, which is great,” he said. “Now we need to start moving from one move to the next. Once we start chain wrestling, we will start to get a lot more points on the board.

Four Chiefs went undefeated in the tournament: Neiss, Micky Cheff, McArthur and Toby Cheff.

Ronan earned 32 pins and gave up 13 pins in six matches.

“[During] last week’s practices we spent a lot of time fighting off our backs and not giving up pins,” Azure said. “It seemed to help.”

Ronan hosted Columbia Falls but results were unavailable at press time.

With a busy schedule, the Chiefs will face Libby again tonight in Ronan before traveling to Missoula for the Rocky Mountain Classic this weekend.